RUMI’S FIELD
Bella Mahaya Carter
“Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
—Rumi
One day you realize your sleet and fog are imagined, and you may go to Rumi’s field any time you wish. You don’t need directions or a map. Nothing in your closet requires mending. You don’t need clothes or a compass. Branches, stones, and stars don’t tremble; they sway, polish, and shine. And so can you. Neither wind nor dark skies matter. Wear dynamite in your shoes and explode if you must, but know that you are the funnel, not the wine; the vase, not the lilies; the artery, not the blood. Surrender paints her lips red. Kiss her. Often.
Bella Mahaya Carter, an award-winning author and spiritual psychologist, facilitates online writing circles for writers, artists, healers, and seekers. Her circles provide a safe and sacred place to celebrate and explore writing through guided mediations, writing prompts, reading, sharing, and coaching. Summer circles begin July 15. Bella’s work is widely published.
Contributor’s Note:
In his poem “Listening,” Rumi writes, “There’s a moon inside every human being. Learn to be companions with it. Give more of your life to this listening. As brightness is to time, so you are to the one who talks to the deep ear in your chest.” I love this description of the heart. The Latin word for heart is “cour,” which shares a root with the word “courage.” Deep listening requires bravery and resolve. I try to lead with the “deep ear in my chest,” especially while writing in my journal, where I make sense of my life, process trauma—and, most of all, listen. To do this, I disrupt my identification with my conscious, egoic mind. I agree with Einstein, who said, “The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.” I attune to what wants to be expressed through me. Relax. Receive. Explore. Eavesdrop on the divine. “Rumi’s Field” arrived while engaged in this practice. The poem is a pep talk from a higher power transmitting information I needed to hear. It calms me. It took time to cultivate the art of letting go. For years, I associated yielding with giving up. But I’ve learned to appreciate the sexiness of surrender, the gifts that come from intimacy with my inner moon. I hope this poem conveys that.
Editor’s Note:
This month, we received 417 submissions dedicated to exploring spiritual poetry, and I chose Bella Mahaya Carter’s “Rumi’s Field” for its seamless mixture of profundity with simplicity. Inspired by Rumi’s timeless invitation, Carter’s poem inhabits the contemplative space that transcends the mundane, urging us to discover a space beyond right and wrong. The poem gently invites one to strip away the superfluous—“clothes or a compass”—and to seek the essence of being. It’s a reminder that we are not just participants in life but the medium through which life expresses itself. This short prose poem guides us to a place where personal transformation is as natural as the swaying of branches and the shining of stars. Carter’s tender command to “kiss Surrender” with lips painted red right after the not-so-tender “wear dynamite in your shoes and explode if you must” resonates as a powerful call to embrace every facet of existence with passion and openness, in a celebration of inner and outer harmony that is both grounding and elevating.